Deep-water-drilling companies routinely enlist remotely operated vehicles, or ROVs, to maintain and assemble equipment underwater. But in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, BP’s attempts to contain the gushing well have pushed these machines to the limits of what they were built to do. And if predictions about the growth of deep-water drilling prove accurate, big fleets of robots will become the norm, and with that will come the need for much better automation.
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When it became clear that the blowout preventer on BP’s ill-fated well in the Gulf of Mexico could not be activated, the company began drilling two relief wells nearby. It’s a standard tactic in the oil and gas industry. But that doesn’t mean that such wells are easy to engineer. It takes a rather sophisticated geophysical sensing system, specialized simulation software, and some careful calculations. In particular, guiding the drilling of relief wells is a notoriously tricky business.
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Once one of the most important technology companies in the world, U.S.-based Motorola was a leader in semiconductors, televisions, radios, cellular networks, and cellphones. All but the last two lines are spun off and gone, and on 19 July, Nokia Siemens announced it would acquire Motorola’s wireless infrastructure division. Host Steven Cherry talks with Yankee Group analyst Ken Rehbehn about what’s left of Motorola and what Nokia Siemens’s purchase means for emerging fourth-generation network technologies.
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Intel reports that it has integrated its hybrid silicon laser, silicon modulator, and detectors into a silicon-based optical interconnect system that can carry 50 gigabits per second. The hope is to make optical communication so affordable and seamless with other silicon chips that it’ll start to replace copper interconnects inside computers. Competitor Luxtera says it can already do that.
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Take a tour of VKR Holding’s “Active House.” The lead architect of the project explains how the house generates its own energy, monitors its own climate, and opens its own windows, all in service of comfort and a small environmental footprint. View now.For more, read the article.

Japanese roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro has just unveiled a new teleoperated android: a strange robotic creature called the Telenoid RI. Unlike Ishiguro’s famous humanlike androids, the Telenoid has a minimalistic design, which gives it the appearance of an overgrown fetus.
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The Wall Street Journal has been running a series of very interesting—and disturbing—articles the past few days investigating Internet spying and its impact on your privacy. For instance, did you know that the top fifty U.S. Web sites install, on average, 64 pieces of tracking technology onto the computers of their visitors?Read more and comment.

Researchers at Purdue University have developed a new design employing carbon nanotubes and small copper spheres that wick water passively toward hot electronics. In the past, the problem of overheating electronics has been addressed with bigger and bigger fans. But with chip features shrinking below 50 nanometers, the fan solution is just no longer cutting it. This new design could very well meet the challenges brought on by increasing frequency speed in chips.
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The portrayal of fMRI technology in Angelina Jolie’s new Cold War-turned-modern thriller, Salt, is giggleworthy. Not only was there no evidence of an actual MRI machine—and the enormous magnet that goes with one—but there were also no wires, and nothing to show how the CIA operatives in the film were pinpointing the brain functions of their subjects.Read more and comment.